Roku strikes Time Warner Cable deal, wants to be your next cable box

Time Warner Cable customers will soon be able to watch live television on their Roku box, thanks to a deal announced Monday at CES. The cooperation between the two companies brings the TWC TV service, which has previously only been available on iOS (s AAPL) and Android (s GOOG) devices as well as on PCs, to second-generation Roku boxes as well as the recently-introduced Roku streaming stick.

Time Warner Cable will stream up to 300 channels to subscribers through the service. The actual channel line-up depends on where customers live, as well as their subscription package, but I’ve been told by Roku that this isn’t one of those “get all the major broadcasters, minus the two you actually watch” kind of deals: “All channels will be included,” a Roku spokesperson told me.

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This is a significant win for Roku, and it foreshadows where the company is going: In the past, Roku has often advertised itself as a cord cutting solution, with Roku CEO Anthony Wood telling us back in 2010 that 12 percent of his customers had already given up on their pay TV subscription. But since then, Roku has put a bigger emphasis on authenticated offerings like HBO Go. The Time Warner Cable deal now marks the first time a pay TV operator is streaming live TV straight to Roku devices.